How Did Davy Crockett Die?

In 1955, Walt Disney gave us “Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.” Fess Parker will always be Davy Crockett, at least for some of us. (Certainly not John Wayne, who was always a cowboy.). The historian William C. Davis (“Three Roads to the Alamo) gave us Davy with all his warts and his virtues. A hero who died furiously defending the Alamo.

While we were watching Fess Parker on the screen, Carmen Perry was laboring over a translation of a difficult old document – the diary of a Mexican army officer who accompanied Santa Anna in Texas. Now available as “With Santa Anna in Texas,” the published translation avers that Davy Crockett was one of several Alamo defenders who surrendered! And was executed by the order of the Generalissimo.

This was a slap in the face to Texans! Surely Davy did not surrender. The troops rallied and began to find flaws in the diary and its translation. The first publication date of de la Pena’s diary was cited as 1836 in Matamoros – but – the diary references a report published in 1838! Surely the diary was a fraud. The 1836 – 1838 discrepancy was cited by Walter Lord (“A Time to Stand), author of the most respected account of the Alamo tragedy.

The “dates” issue was fully resolved later – a mistake by a translator – but many Texans still doubt that the de la Pena account is accurate.

Still, the question haunts us. There were other accounts to support the surrender theory, diaries and letters by other Mexican offers have surfaced. Did Santa Anna know who Davy Crockett was? Maybe not. Travis and Bowie were known in Mexico. Crockett was known in the U.S.

How many survivors in the Alamo? At least fourteen, suggests Walter Lord. Three Americans (Susanna Dickinson, her daughter Angelina, and Travis’s slave Joe) as well as ten Mexican women and children. Brigido Guerrero, a member of the garrison, convinced Mexican soldiers that he was a prisoner of the Texans. One Henry Warnell may have lived, but died soon from wounds. And there are other possibilities, lost in time. None of the survivors mentioned a Crockett surrender.

I’ve listed the three books – Davis’s “Three Roads,” Perry’s translation of the De la Pena diary, and Walter Lord’s “A Time to Stand” on my Shelfari shelf. If you’re a Texan – “A time to Stand” is a must read. The Crockett controversy is -- well -- put on the shelf.

dac

5/13/2008

Comments

[Dac Crossley]

Wes, I agree with you. Billy Bob Thornton was the best Davy Crockett. When I heard that he was playing that part I said, NO WAY. But he pulled it off. The best Davy Crockett yet.

dac

[Wes]

Billy Bob Thorntons portrayal of Crockett in the last Alamo movie was the best. John Wayne was nailed to the doors of the Alamo with Lances in true Ham fashion.

[Karen]

Jean Lafitte (according to Colliers Encyclopedia, circa 1959) ended it's article on him by saying "he sailed away and was never heard from again". I watched a movie with Yul Brynner as Lafitte in my early teens. I always needed to groundtruth things I saw or heard. I've read different accounts of his biography since then, but I hold to the Colliers version.

Congratulations Dac!!

[Janice Pulliam]

guess we'll have to let what Crockett did be between him and God. we have enough heroes to have given us the concept of heroism. sometimes it's fine to be a hero and sometimes the costs outweigh the effort. we each have to decide, and then the decision rests between us and God. may God love us all, and may we each be loved by someone. if you don't believe in God, put in the word conscience. may we all have peace in our hearts at the end, wherever it comes from. janice